Author : Vidan Bommarabettu Shrinivasa Bhat
Translator : Varun Krishnam Vijaya
Hanumanta, the emissary of Lord Rama leapt across the ocean that was 100 yojanas wide and stood on the shores of Lanka. He overcame all obstacles he had encountered during the course of his journey. He entered Lanka. At night, he entered Ravana’s Antahpura and searched for Sita. Sita was not located there. He then entered the grove, Ashokavana. He spotted Sita under the shade of the Shimshapa tree. He approached Sita and introduced himself.
He gave her the ring given by Lord Rama. He accepted the beautiful ornament, choodamani, from Sita. Then he crushed all the trees in Ravana’s beautiful Ashokavana. The servants rushed to complain about the state of affairs to Ravana. Ravana sent forth his minions. The minions approached Hanumanta and stood for war. They asked him to identify himself. Lord Hanumanta replied thus:
“dAsOham kOsalEndrasya rAmasyaaklishtakarmanah”
“The son of Kausalya, Lord Sri Ramachandra, is a great warrior. I am a faithful servant of that Lord Rama”
Despite traversing a great distance of 100 yojanas, defeating the demons such as Simhike etc, Lord Hanumanta introduced himself as a faithful servant of Lord Rama without any pride and vanity. Servitude is one of the nine types of devotion (Bhakti) we have to offer to the supreme Lord. Servitude implies dedicating ourselves to the supreme Lord. There is no greater example than Lord Hanumanta for us to follow. We can see Lord Sri Mukhyaprana of Palimaru on the cover page of this edition. This ever beautiful Lord Sri Mukhyaprana is in the folded hands pose. Through this, Lord Sri Mukhyaprana is implying that he is forever a faithful servant of Kosalendra Rama. Let us all pray to Lord Hanumanta in our efforts to become servants of Lord Rama.
